SXSW First Look: Store Shelves That Talk to Your Phone

Shelves that can beam coupons and offers to your phone are coming soon to a store near you. The question is: How will it work without being annoying—or creepy?

At the South By Southwest technology conference in Austin, a company called Shelfbucks showed off this beacon technology at a local drug store. Hold your phone near one of the wireless stations on a store shelf, and a series of product discounts pop up inside an app on your phone. (To work, your phone must have Bluetooth or another wireless tech call Near Field Communication turned on.) You can select the coupons you want and then, at checkout, you wave your phone again to redeem them.

Shelfbucks says the Austin store is a demonstration of technology they’re likely to roll out in tests at major U.S. retailers later this year.

The Shelfbucks station is no larger than your phone, and communicates wirelessly when you hold your device near it.

The Wall Street Journal

They’re not alone working on shelf signal technology for stores. Recently, Apple formalized a standard it calls iBeacon, which Shelfbucks uses as part of its system, that allows retailers to beam messages to phones tailored to where you are in the store.

Apple has begun using the technology in its own stores to send messages about products, events and other information, but only if you have downloaded the Apple Store app and have given it permission to send the notices.

The potential uses of this technology are many, from coupons to subway alerts. The hard part is likely going to be figuring out how to get permission from consumers to beam the messages, and also deliver them in ways that aren’t annoying. Some companies experimenting with the beacons automatically send out alerts just for entering a particular part of the store.

Shelfbucks COO Mike Scheschuk says he thinks that experience will get old very soon, so his company intentionally built a double opt-in to their service. You have to download an applicable app (which might in the future be the app of a major retailer) and also walk close to the wireless box to receive the deal.